World of Warcraft’s $60 level-boosts reflect important economic reality

Like it or not, exchanging money for time is increasingly the name of the game.

In games, as in life, the only truly nonrenewable resource is time. Thus, anything that saves a player time in getting something they want will have some important real-world value. World of Warcraft seems to finally be acknowledging this basic economic fact of life, letting players pay $60 to instantly level any character all the way up to level 90 in its upcoming expansion.

Blizzard announced back at Blizzcon 2013 in November that players who purchased the upcoming Warlords of Draenor expansion would be able to instantly level a single character up to level 90 as a free bonus, thereby gaining the ability to take part in new content that's balanced for characters from level 90 to the new level cap of 100. Then, in January, the company said it was also "testing out a feature that gives you the option to purchase a character upgrade directly," allowing players with multiple characters to get the instant boost without, say, buying multiple copies of the expansion (which isn't yet available for preorder).

Last week, WoW Insidernoticed a "Level 90 character boost" item briefly listed in the in-game shop during server maintenance before being quickly removed. The asking price on the listing: $60.

Reactions to the leak ran the gamut. Some seemed offended at the idea of buying levels at all, but others were peeved that Blizzard will be charging as much or more for a level boost than it usually charges for game expansions themselves (recent expansion Mists of Pandaria launched for $40, or $60 for a digital deluxe edition packed with in-game freebies). "If this is true then this is THE biggest scam I have ever seen," said one particularly hyperbolic forum-goer.

"If our goal here was to sell as many boosts as possible, we could halve the price or more than that—make it $10 or something," Hazzikostas said. "And then hardly anyone would ever level a character again. But leveling is something that takes dozens if not over 100 hours in many cases and people have put serious time and effort into that, and we don't want to diminish that.

"The intent here isn't to create a world where no one levels," Hazzikostas continued. "It's just to allow people who want to purchase additional level 90s, maybe they want a second or third alt and they don't have time to level it themselves because they have a family or etc—it's to allow them to do that."

Here's the problem: the "accomplishment of leveling" was devalued the moment Blizzard decided to introduce the instant level boost in the first place. Before Warlords of Draenor, a level-90 character had cachet precisely because it represented "dozens if not over 100 hours" of play time. After Warlords of Draenor, a level-90 character could simply represent someone who was willing to buy the latest version of the game they're currently playing.

Once you've rung that "money equals levels" bell, it only makes sense to sell your newly commoditized leveling system as an à la carte instant upgrade, separate from the expansion itself. But let's not pretend that the value of a World of Warcraft level can be protected by charging an artificially high price for it. Once you allow that people who "don't have time to level" can pay for the privilege, the intrinsic value of leveling is immediately converted from a purely time-based investment to a mixed time/cash-based commodity. Haggling over the price doesn't change that basic and important alteration.

Not that this kind of "devaluing" is necessarily a bad thing. Spending money to save time is an increasingly common (if controversial) part of the online gaming world, especially when it comes to free-to-play MMOs. EVE Online's entire robust in-game economy is based in part on the ability to buy game time with money or in-game cash, to cite just one of many examples.

The addition of instant-leveling can also be seen as an acknowledgement of the ever-present shadow economy surrounding WoW's in-game resources and leveling systems. It's not exactly hard to find companies that will ignore the terms of service and play your character up to whatever level you want in exchange for cash or sell you illicitly farmed gold to fulfill your wildest in-game fantasies.

These gray market services are an outgrowth of the inherent link between time and money as it relates to in-game economies, and trying to squash them (or ignore them) isn't necessarily the best management technique. Indeed, Blizzard ended up trying to take a cut of the money-for-time action with Diablo III's real-money auction house.

Taken to the extreme, Blizzard could do something similar for WoW's leveling system, simply letting the market decide the real-world value of those levels rather than selling them directly. The developers could set up a system where people offer excess experience points directly into a pool, for example, in exchange for cash from the highest bidder. That may sound like a libertarian utopia of supply-and-demand bartering, but Blizzard's disastrous, practically game-breaking experience with the soon-to-be-removed Diablo III real-money auction house suggests it may not work well in practice.

In any case, the idea of needing to experience World of Warcraft to get experience points will soon officially become a thing of the past. You can deride the concept or gripe about the specific pricing, but the one thing you can't do is separate the ever-present link between time and money, especially when it comes to online gaming.

Promoted Comments

On the one hand, I have SEVEN level 90 characters, and I'm tired of leveling. Being able to instantly have another level 90 would be nice.

On the other hand, I have SEVEN level 90 characters. I put the work into leveling and gearing them all - now others can have the same thing that took me months of playtime with a couple days worth of wages.

In the end, as long as blizzard maintains that you have to hit level 90 the hard way at least once before you can buy a level 90, I think I'm OK with it. Not for some ego reason, just that there are valuable learning experiences for the game in those 90 levels.

I'm a casual WoW player--I tend to dip my toes in, get up to the level cap, play endgame for a while, then drop out for a year or two. Between my career and personal life, I simply don't have time to spend endless hours playing. My time budget is more like 5-10 hours per week. If I wanted to try out multiple classes in endgame, we're talking months or years to get those characters leveled up.

Sure, $60 is a lot of money, and a lot of people won't spend that kind of cash when they can trade the time instead. But for me, $60 is an impulse buy. I'd *gladly* spend $60 for the chance to play another class at end-game without dedicating months to getting there. That last 10 levels is enough time to learn how to play the class, plus building a set of questing gear. That puts it more like $60 and a few weeks to be ready for endgame for me. That's reasonable.

There are a few sides to this "medal". If I had already one or 2 level 90, I would love to have the ability to reach it faster on my alts to avoid doing the same content again and again. I've played a lot of mmorpgs and still play some of them at the moment, in fact, I play SWTOR at the moment and finished leveling a new character yesterday, this was a really boring last 3 weeks, but I had to level up this tank for my raid group. I already have 3 level 55 Imperial characters, and had 3 level 55 republic characters, that last character (the 7th level 55) was just a pain to level. Having a 60$ thingy to go from 1-50 instantly would have made me really happy.

But at the same time, i wouldn't want a newbie who as zéro experience with the game (any mmorpg) to reach high level so fast that we have plenty of unskilled characters asking for an end-game group. Level 1, 2 or maybe 3 to top, then give them the reward of having this goodie. In fact, i would give players this goodie at a minimum of 2 characters. Cause even at high level, there are still totally unskilled players putting the wrong stats on their equipment (in swtor for example, i've seen Jedi sages with Aim instead of willpower as their main stats, just because de number were higher... please, do not increase that number of players at the top level).

On a third side, there are tons of gold farmers / powerlevelers illegal sites and untrustable sites that charge for that same service and put lots of accounts in danger and pose major security treat. Like every companies, blizard, bioware, SOE (particularily SOE), trion worlds, have all been hit, one day or another with a security hack. If those little untrusted chinese website have access to players real password (for powerleveling), that mean they can now compare hash code extracted from hacks with real password, and then from that, extract the encryption key. I would do that, and if I would do that, lots of others would do that because I'm not more intelligent that the rest of the population.

And on a fourth side, on the same subject, if you want to cut down an illegal business, why not offer the same thing at lower price? This goodie is pretty cheap considering the powerleveling fees that illegal companies are charging, plus, you don't have the hassle to give your password and account info to someone else, and it's instant.

342 Reader Comments

I just started replaying WoW (I do this basically every expansion), and have been playing on and off since 2004. Just a few points:

a) The game is 10 years old. Cata helped a lot of the low level stuff, but a lot of the dungeons / quests (Outland particularly) are ancient. Do I want to re-run Wailing Caverns? A dungeon I played 10 years ago?

b) The game starts at 90. Sure there is a minority who play primarily at low levels, but you cannot escape this fact. WoW is designed this way.

c) Blizzard makes it impossible to use your 90 to help your friends level. So my friend wants to join me to play WoW with me...great! I'll see you in 6 weeks when I'm a tier or 2 above you. If Blizzard allowed some sort of level scaling (think GW2) where you 'became X level' but still earned level 90 rewards, maybe it would help. But currently, WoW is an MMO. I want to play with friends. They are level 90.

d) Leveling to 90 is not an accomplishment. I'm sorry. You can do it completely solo while using a subset of your class's abilities.

e) They are implementing a 'skill check' in WoD to queue for random dungeons via the proving grounds. So, if you level 90-100 you still need to know you class well enough to join randoms in raids/dungeons.

"The hard way"? I haven't played since BC, but I can't remember leveling being ever hard or challenging. It's not as if they were selling high-end raiding or PVP gear, the only thing they save you is being willing to invest time.

There are a few sides to this "medal". If I had already one or 2 level 90, I would love to have the ability to reach it faster on my alts to avoid doing the same content again and again. I've played a lot of mmorpgs and still play some of them at the moment, in fact, I play SWTOR at the moment and finished leveling a new character yesterday, this was a really boring last 3 weeks, but I had to level up this tank for my raid group. I already have 3 level 55 Imperial characters, and had 3 level 55 republic characters, that last character (the 7th level 55) was just a pain to level. Having a 60$ thingy to go from 1-50 instantly would have made me really happy.

But at the same time, i wouldn't want a newbie who as zéro experience with the game (any mmorpg) to reach high level so fast that we have plenty of unskilled characters asking for an end-game group. Level 1, 2 or maybe 3 to top, then give them the reward of having this goodie. In fact, i would give players this goodie at a minimum of 2 characters. Cause even at high level, there are still totally unskilled players putting the wrong stats on their equipment (in swtor for example, i've seen Jedi sages with Aim instead of willpower as their main stats, just because de number were higher... please, do not increase that number of players at the top level).

On a third side, there are tons of gold farmers / powerlevelers illegal sites and untrustable sites that charge for that same service and put lots of accounts in danger and pose major security treat. Like every companies, blizard, bioware, SOE (particularily SOE), trion worlds, have all been hit, one day or another with a security hack. If those little untrusted chinese website have access to players real password (for powerleveling), that mean they can now compare hash code extracted from hacks with real password, and then from that, extract the encryption key. I would do that, and if I would do that, lots of others would do that because I'm not more intelligent that the rest of the population.

And on a fourth side, on the same subject, if you want to cut down an illegal business, why not offer the same thing at lower price? This goodie is pretty cheap considering the powerleveling fees that illegal companies are charging, plus, you don't have the hassle to give your password and account info to someone else, and it's instant.

It still surprises me that in an age of gaming where new releases get price slashed sometimes not even a month after release, that people are still willing to pay *full price* for an expansion for an MMO alongside the base game fee and subscription fee.

Add in a max-level fee if you don't want to be a part of the dregs of WoW society and we're talking, what. ~$150 or something to play the game to its full extent as a beginner? Last I heard, buying the game gets you a month or so of subscription service so I'm not including that.

I guess you don't *have* to buy all of that but when you can go and buy GW2 for $50 and not have a subscription fee (although does GW2 still have expansions?) or SW: TOR or w/e the other subscription-based MMOs are, and still have basically the same gameplay... why would you buy into WoW? Is the community worth it? Because to the individual, a couple hundred thousand players isn't going to be visibly different from millions, practically speaking. So buying a game because of the size of the user base isn't a strong argument to me, either.

SW:TOR went "free to play" over a year and half ago. It only made it a single year before it went to that model.

And, having been active at the time, I highly suspect that it was another game 'crushed to death' by WoW's market dominance. It had a huge flood of new players - who griped about the slower leveling pace, funny enough. It also had serious performance problems, in that it had serious graphics lag on new PCs.

When the F2P transitions came, the dev team had just launched into its first round of server crunches, where it took all the numerous, but sparsely populated launch servers, and compacted them into about seven or eight super-servers that still live to this day.

Sadly, BioWare Austin seems to be focusing more on microtransaction booster packs that actually ran me off from the game once I bought a couple. Sure the costumes were funny, but the ability to get unlockable weapon crystals...holy heck. Those weapon crystals break 10-39 PvP so horribly, it's not funny. It's hilarious to be a freshly-minted Lv.10 with Bolstered HP of about 45k, if you took a Lv.10 +41 Endurance crystal. For reference, this is a start-game crystal that grants endgame stats.

Even though I love the PvP due to how the classes are setup, and parts of SWTOR's PvP community are pretty great...I'm not really sure I want to play it, now that my Lv.10s can be as unfair as any other character I can dream up. What's the point? Now, in both cases?

I was active during that time also.

I think SW:TOR main problem was Bioware more then anything. They either did to much or to little. Their content no doubt was expensive to generate, all the dialog in the game had real voice acting, that requires you basically employ those actors in order to generate new content based around them.

I want to get into SW:TOR but my PC when it came out could barely handle it, my plans for a new rig during that year were delayed, 2 years later I couldn't even play old max level content if I wanted to.

Yes, I bought the expansion, and realize the level cap also increased. Just speaking getting the experience of the battles required to do future battles.

The simple solution is to remove leveling entirely. The same goes for FPS games like Call of Duty. Logically, if reaching a higher level means fighting higher level players and NPCs, then the leveling has no affect on gameplay. Also, if more fun is to be had at a higher level, then a game is less fun to play at lower levels and throughout a game, players cannot achieve the maximum amount of fun.

Moving from the trees to the forest, leveling is toxic to online-multiplayer. For new players, the fun factor diminishes in relation to the upper hand gained by long-time players. You see communities peak all the time as they fail to gain new players as quickly as they lose long-time players. If current trends continue, you will see online-multiplayer as a whole decline as new players are turned off by the entire experience. Charging money to level the playing field is not a solution to this problem.

The simple solution is to remove leveling entirely. The same goes for FPS games like Call of Duty. Logically, if reaching a higher level means fighting higher level players and NPCs, then the leveling has no affect on gameplay. Also, if more fun is to be had at a higher level, then a game is less fun to play at lower levels and throughout a game, players cannot achieve the maximum amount of fun.

Moving from the trees to the forest, leveling is toxic to online-multiplayer. For new players, the fun factor diminishes in relation to the upper hand gained by long-time players. You see communities peak all the time as they fail to gain new players as quickly as they lose long-time players. If current trends continue, you will see online-multiplayer as a whole decline as new players are turned off by the entire experience. Charging money to level the playing field is not a solution to this problem.

The developers behind say SW:TOR or World of Warcraft still want to tell a story.

Granted I suppose they could create a 20 minute movie, adding 5 minutes every expansion, and get the same result.

I really don't understand this. If it isn't fun to play the game and thereby level up, why are people playing the game in the first place? Does the game somehow only become fun after you hit level 90? Are you basically paying to avoid boring parts of the game? Sounds like a fundamentally flawed game. I can't imagine continuing to play a game that was so boring I would pay to play less. Why not quit and find a game that is actually fun to play?

As a vanilla player, I honestly think this is a worthwhile addition. Especially if it cuts into the grey/black market surrounding the game. I managed one, maybe two, 90s before I froze my account, but have another seven or eight 80+ characters. To achieve that took several years gradually adding two or three new max-level characters each expansion. I've the advantage of being able to play a high level character of whatever class or race I want whenever I want, but a newer player is at a massive disadvantage when doing the same, so I say, sure, let them purchase a high level of the class or race they want to play. It's no skin off my back.

And it's not that different from other promotions they've done in the past: they've given free high levels with most (if not all expansions); the RAF program gives a massive experience boost that applies to both the new and veteran account, in addition to granting free levels to the veteran account; the Scroll of Resurrection (now removed) gave free levels to returning characters; and I'm sure there's other examples I'm forgetting.

I know there were plenty of players (including myself), who used the RAF to get cheap high level characters by buying a $5 copy of the game, a 2 month subscription card, and then transferring the capped character to their main account before the subscription expired. For the price of ~$45 and a little time, you could get (at least) two level 60+ characters, another character at 30+, and a unique mount.

I guess you don't *have* to buy all of that but when you can go and buy GW2 for $50 and not have a subscription fee (although does GW2 still have expansions?) or SW: TOR or w/e the other subscription-based MMOs are, and still have basically the same gameplay... why would you buy into WoW? Is the community worth it? Because to the individual, a couple hundred thousand players isn't going to be visibly different from millions, practically speaking. So buying a game because of the size of the user base isn't a strong argument to me, either.

I currently don't have an active WoW account, and have a sometimes active GW2 account. If I were looking to get into an MMO, I'd go back to WoW and pay the subscription fee over playing more GW2 for free. There's just more to do in WoW in general. After maxing a character in GW2, maxing my professions, and doing some PvP, there's not much left to do. There's the world event stuff, which is fun for a few weeks, but I've found WoW to be more enjoyable for continuous and long-term play. I find myself bored with GW2 playing a few hours a week, where as WoW tends to hold my attention for a few hours a day (perhaps this makes GW2 the better game, because it's easier to put down).

I can't be the only one who like the leveling part of WOW (even if it's repetitive) and get bored really fast with the end game. When I was still playing, I would start a new character as soon as I reached the top level.

To me end-game raiding really feels like a chore, you have to follow a schedule, meet requirements, practice, etc. I already have a job like that, I don't want another...

I can't say I disagree. When I played and hit the endgame I found it to be a chore. I also found that if you didn't know every little thing that was going to happen you ended up lost and people were....less than helpful.Unless you were willing to dedicate an incredible amount of time and actually research things it seemed like more trouble than it was worth.

That said, I would have enjoyed trying some different classes at the higher levels without having to spend a ton of time geting them there. At the end of the day it just wasn't worth 15 bucks a month for the short amount of time I actually played. About once a year I subscribe for a month, play a bit, get bored.

As the author notes, there is a general trend towards exchanging money for time in video games. As the joke goes, paying more for less.

Every time a company implements a way to "escape" content for $$$, they are, in effect, incentivising themselves to make that content worthy of escaping. Making it boring, repetitive, unfun, etc. This would be bad news, but WoW is already built bottom up on the notion that end-game is fun and everything else isn't.

Seem from this perspective, to $60 price is better news than $15. It means that Blizzard is not as of yet committed to making the grind even worse.

As the author notes, there is a general trend towards exchanging money for time in video games. As the joke goes, paying more for less.

Every time a company implements a way to "escape" content for $$$, they are, in effect, incentivising themselves to make that content worthy of escaping. Making it boring, repetitive, unfun, etc. This would be bad news, but WoW is already built bottom up on the notion that end-game is fun and everything else isn't.

Seem from this perspective, to $60 price is better news than $15. It means that Blizzard is not as of yet committed to making the grind even worse.

And over the 10 years they have made the grind less and less. Each expansion experience curve is lowered 20-30%. Heirloom items were added allowing a fast exp gain. Monks get a exp boost buff every 10 levels from a class quest.

Hell they lowered the Pandaria 85-90 curve by 30% by patch... 5.2? 5.3?

Pay to win, pay to skip content, pay to get what you'd get if you played (only, not as a reward for your in game accomplishments but your real life accomplishments this time)...

I wonder why people actually play these games if they simply have other life priorities. Movies are much better in terms of time/monetary investment for content voyeurs. Cheat codes (this is what it boils down to, right?) are kinda horrible for immersion, so you're missing out on the experience.

This particular levelling service, at this point in the game's lifecycle is sort of excusable (well, it's definitely a money grab but if that doesn't matter to you, by all means), it only robs someone of experiencing game content at his own choice - WoW levelling always felt very well put together to me, pacing, content and all. Other games that sell items and whatnot, the whole pay to win concept... I just don't understand. I did use cheat codes from time to time when I didn't really feel like playing a game (or felt it was too hard) but liked the story but I don't think I'd ever pay more money to not have to play a game, after purchasing it. Especially since I am now enabled to read all the story, see all the cutscenes and so on on other mediums.

Not that this kind of "devaluing" is necessarily a bad thing. Spending money to save time is an increasingly common (if controversial) part of the online gaming world, especially when it comes to free-to-play MMOs. EVE Online's entire robust in-game economy is based in part on the ability to buy game time with money or in-game cash, to cite just one of many examples.

This is a pretty poor comparison and is extremely misleading to someone that's never played Eve Online. The entire point (of the article) is that spending money can save time, and in Eve you can buy game time. However, the game time you can buy in Eve is only subscription time. Instead of paying CCP $15 a month for access to the game servers, I pay anther player ~600m ISK for a time card that gives me access to CCP's game servers for a month, that player paid CCP $15 for that time card, so CCP gets their money in the end.

At no point was time saved or something skipped. It didn't add levels or skill points to my character. It didn't give me better gear or access to a new area. Its simply a different way of paying for my subscription.

You could argue that the person selling the game time, the one I pay 600m ISK to, could use that in game currency to buy better gear, and in a way you would be correct. However, that gear was never generated from nothing they way character levels were. Someone still had to produce or find that gear in Eve and sell it in game. You could also argue that you can buy characters on the market in Eve, so YOU are instantly getting a 90m SP character. Again, nobody just gave that character all that SP, it wasn't magically and instantly leveled the way WoW is doing it. Someone spent years training up that character to it's current level.

You also make this statement right after one about it being common in free to play MMO's. Eve Online isn't free to play.

This paragraph should really be reworded, unless you meant for it it be so misleading.

I was an early adopter of Everquest and then WoW. Frankly, I have given them both up due to the dumbing down of the playing process, making leveling easy (read boring) and the introduction of money for play time concept. If some wealthy kid can come in and buy a level 90 toon, without going through the experience of playing, then what is the point?

I really don't understand this. If it isn't fun to play the game and thereby level up, why are people playing the game in the first place? Does the game somehow only become fun after you hit level 90? Are you basically paying to avoid boring parts of the game? Sounds like a fundamentally flawed game. I can't imagine continuing to play a game that was so boring I would pay to play less. Why not quit and find a game that is actually fun to play?

It's more likely going to be used by veteran players creating new characters, than new players creating new characters. Say a player has a level 90 Mage, but has always wanted to try out a Shaman. Under the current system they'd have to create and level a new character to do so, all the while also playing with their Mage if they wanted to raid or PvP with their guild. With this, they'd be able to jump right into playing the Shaman with their guild, essentially replacing their Mage immediately. They also wouldn't have to worry about being left behind and having to play catch up on their Shaman's gear (or at least, not the extent if they spent a month leveling one).

It's not so much that the low level or leveling portion of the game isn't fun, though some would attest that is the case (personally I think it's more enjoyable than end game in many aspects). It's about convenience and allowing people to play how they want and with whom they want.

When these games paint gold buying and paid level training as public enemy number one it's a bit of a slap in the face when the company turns around and starts selling the services themselves.

Disagreed. Blizzard doesn't like 3rd party leveling/gold selling services, in large part, because that's why the majority of account-hacks happen. By undercutting the power-leveling services, Blizzard is reducing the amount of customer ire and support time related to those. In that respect Blizzard's stance seems self-consistent and pro-player.

I really don't understand this. If it isn't fun to play the game and thereby level up, why are people playing the game in the first place? Does the game somehow only become fun after you hit level 90? Are you basically paying to avoid boring parts of the game? Sounds like a fundamentally flawed game. I can't imagine continuing to play a game that was so boring I would pay to play less. Why not quit and find a game that is actually fun to play?

Since this is being asked/commented a lot... Leveling up the first 1 or 2 times is fun. However, if you like the end-game-content more than you like the leveling process, then even if the leveling is fun, it's less fun than what you'd rather be doing. You could turn your own sentence around from:

"I can't imagine continuing to play a game that was so boring I would pay to play less."to"Imagine a game that was so fun at point X that you were actually willing to pay extra, beyond the normal fees of the game, just to get to that point!"

It's not all roses and unicorns in WoW, but it's not nearly as dire as your commentary suggests, in my opinion.

What I don't understand about things like this is, levelling isn't a downside of gaming, levelling IS the game.

Why would you buy a game, and then pay as much money to not play it? And yet, this kind of thing sells.

End game is not a new concept. WoW didn't invent it, but it sure as hell perfected it.

Leveling up to max has always been a different beast than progressing through dungeons and raids. It only makes sense for there to be a shortcut for people who know that they'll have fun with the end game but don't enjoy/have time for leveling.

With the prevalence of heirloom items and the mid-expansion boost to 85-90 leveling speed, there is no "cachet" to a max level character. It's easy, and doesn't take that long. Well over half of characters logged on at any time are max level.

"Imagine a game that was so fun at point X that you were actually willing to pay extra, beyond the normal fees of the game, just to get to that point!"

The problem with this, as others have pointed out, is that it incentivizes Blizzard to ensure that there are boring parts to increase the likelihood that people will want to pay to skip it. Sure, one could argue that Blizzard isn't motivated in that way, but can you prove it? The problem is that this kind of system in general is ripe for abuse, and that's a big part of why people don't like it.

EDIT: If the endgame is that much more fun that the rest of the game it also means they failed to properly balance the game, and why should I pay MORE for that?

But at the same time, i wouldn't want a newbie who as zéro experience with the game (any mmorpg) to reach high level so fast that we have plenty of unskilled characters asking for an end-game group. Level 1, 2 or maybe 3 to top, then give them the reward of having this goodie. In fact, i would give players this goodie at a minimum of 2 characters. Cause even at high level, there are still totally unskilled players putting the wrong stats on their equipment (in swtor for example, i've seen Jedi sages with Aim instead of willpower as their main stats, just because de number were higher... please, do not increase that number of players at the top level).

You already have these issues in LFR. People don't know their roles, don't know how to play their class, can't follow mechanics, pull early, stand in stuff, you know, the works. Just because you can pass a 496 gear check doesn't mean you can play (especially with Timeless Isle).

But this only affects LFR. And in a 25 man group, new/terrible players can be carried, and hopefully they'll learn how things works. If you've progressed to flex/normal/heroic raids, new boosted 90s with no skill is not a problem for you.

The problem with this, as others have pointed out, is that it incentivizes Blizzard to ensure that there are boring parts to increase the likelihood that people will want to pay to skip it. Sure, one could argue that Blizzard isn't motivated in that way, but can you prove it? The problem is that this kind of system in general is ripe for abuse, and that's a big part of why people don't like it.

EDIT: If the endgame is that much more fun that the rest of the game it also means they failed to properly balance the game, and why should I pay MORE for that?

WoWs model has pretty much always been: "we're going to add levels and end game content, screw 1-60 (1-70, etc)". This is not new. Cataclysm was the anomaly. They've added some new beginner zones for new races, but WoW has ALWAYS been about end game.

If you come to WoW looking for a vibrant 1-89 community, you're seriously barking up the wrong tree.

The problem with this, as others have pointed out, is that it incentivizes Blizzard to ensure that there are boring parts to increase the likelihood that people will want to pay to skip it. Sure, one could argue that Blizzard isn't motivated in that way, but can you prove it? The problem is that this kind of system in general is ripe for abuse, and that's a big part of why people don't like it.

EDIT: If the endgame is that much more fun that the rest of the game it also means they failed to properly balance the game, and why should I pay MORE for that?

WoWs model has pretty much always been: "we're going to add levels and end game content, screw 1-60 (1-70, etc)". This is not new. Cataclysm was the anomaly. They've added some new beginner zones for new races, but WoW has ALWAYS been about end game.

If you come to WoW looking for a vibrant 1-89 community, you're seriously barking up the wrong tree.

That's why most MMORPGs aren't for me, any more. I found out that I'm just not that kind of gamer.

And, that's just as OK as it is for gamers who are. To each their own.

You already have these issues in LFR. People don't know their roles, don't know how to play their class, can't follow mechanics, pull early, stand in stuff, you know, the works. Just because you can pass a 496 gear check doesn't mean you can play (especially with Timeless Isle).

But this only affects LFR.

And Blizzard is changing this in WoD. You need a silver in Proving Grounds in your class/role to queue for randoms.

You already have these issues in LFR. People don't know their roles, don't know how to play their class, can't follow mechanics, pull early, stand in stuff, you know, the works. Just because you can pass a 496 gear check doesn't mean you can play (especially with Timeless Isle).

But this only affects LFR.

And Blizzard is changing this in WoD. You need a silver in Proving Grounds in your class/role to queue for randoms.

EDIT: If the endgame is that much more fun that the rest of the game it also means they failed to properly balance the game, and why should I pay MORE for that?

Whether the end game is better or not is a matter of perspective. Personally, I find the lower levels to be more enjoyable, in general. The raids and end-game dungeons are alright, but nothing to write home about. Others have the exact opposite opinion, and play almost exclusively for the Tuesday night raid slot. Others still prefer the PvP and couldn't care less about any PvE content, and yet others prefer fishing, farming, pet battles, and whatever other minigames are out there (actually, that's some of my favourite end game content).

Of course we should realize this game has zero rpg elements to it anymore. Steadily removing all aspects over the last few years. Skill tree? Nope! Leveling? Nope! How can one form an attachment to a character that has no history? The answer is simple, they cannot.

The problem with this, as others have pointed out, is that it incentivizes Blizzard to ensure that there are boring parts to increase the likelihood that people will want to pay to skip it. Sure, one could argue that Blizzard isn't motivated in that way, but can you prove it? The problem is that this kind of system in general is ripe for abuse, and that's a big part of why people don't like it.

EDIT: If the endgame is that much more fun that the rest of the game it also means they failed to properly balance the game, and why should I pay MORE for that?

WoWs model has pretty much always been: "we're going to add levels and end game content, screw 1-60 (1-70, etc)". This is not new. Cataclysm was the anomaly. They've added some new beginner zones for new races, but WoW has ALWAYS been about end game.

If you come to WoW looking for a vibrant 1-89 community, you're seriously barking up the wrong tree.

That's why most MMORPGs aren't for me, any more. I found out that I'm just not that kind of gamer.

And, that's just as OK as it is for gamers who are. To each their own.

As I said earlier, I just re-subbed (first time since Cata) and it's great. I usually burn out on end-game as well, but they've done a lot to make the game accessible with lots of stuff to do. Scenarios/heroics/LFR (to me) are all enjoyable with 1 or 2 friends. I've been going back to old content and solo-ing it cause I was never a raider. People look down on LFR, but whatever. I enjoy it. I can log on, queue, and finish a wing usually in under an hour (being a healer helps). I can finally see the content.

On the one hand, I have SEVEN level 90 characters, and I'm tired of leveling. Being able to instantly have another level 90 would be nice.

On the other hand, I have SEVEN level 90 characters. I put the work into leveling and gearing them all - now others can have the same thing that took me months of playtime with a couple days worth of wages.

In the end, as long as blizzard maintains that you have to hit level 90 the hard way at least once before you can buy a level 90, I think I'm OK with it. Not for some ego reason, just that there are valuable learning experiences for the game in those 90 levels.

I agree with this. I have paid my dues, have a family, a mortgage, and a strenious job. It sucks leveling that 6th, 7th, 8th tune to 80/90. Impose a limit on how many times you can do this, and a minimum amount of legitimately leveled 90's (3 sounds fair), and I'm ok with it. Anything else de-values the game and all the time I originally invested.

Also if there is no minumum, flag these purchases that do not have lvl 90's already with a little bottle, with an applicator at the tip by their name. So I know where the douches are in Stormwind.

WoWs model has pretty much always been: "we're going to add levels and end game content, screw 1-60 (1-70, etc)". This is not new. Cataclysm was the anomaly. They've added some new beginner zones for new races, but WoW has ALWAYS been about end game.

Exactly, they tried to buck that trend in Cataclysm and it blew up in their face-- Cataclysm was by all accounts, sales, critical reception, and player feedback, the worst WoW expansion by a large margin. So now they're back to the original conceit of adding a new continent with 15-20 hours of leveling content followed by a tremendous investment in the endgame.

On the one hand, I have SEVEN level 90 characters, and I'm tired of leveling. Being able to instantly have another level 90 would be nice.

On the other hand, I have SEVEN level 90 characters. I put the work into leveling and gearing them all - now others can have the same thing that took me months of playtime with a couple days worth of wages.

In the end, as long as blizzard maintains that you have to hit level 90 the hard way at least once before you can buy a level 90, I think I'm OK with it. Not for some ego reason, just that there are valuable learning experiences for the game in those 90 levels.

not familar with the game, but then, why don't they allow people to buy this upgrade only after they level at least one or two character to level 90? and make it also a tad cheaper(edit: yeah I realise that's basically what you said)

why don't they allow people to buy this upgrade only after they level at least one or two character to level 90? and make it also a tad cheaper

Because they want new people to start playing WoW with their friends. I addressed price earlier; since they're giving a free L90 boost with the expansion pack, anyone could simply buy a second WoW account and transfer the new 90 to their main account for ~$75. That's why they priced the service at $60.

What it would boil down to me is that getting to 90 puts me 10 levels closer to raiding. In terms of the next release, it really is not that big a deal because you are still looking at putting in time for the next 10 levels. And also it is not as though they are putting you at max-level for the game, they are putting you at where you would be if you had played and raided if you played the entire past expansion.

One thing I learned as a tank is that my levelling experience had near zero cross-over in what I needed to know when I was raiding. I also spent much more time going from 85 to raiding than I spent levelling from 80 to 85. If I decide to re-up for WoD then that 90 will save me 15 levels, and then I can run through the story at max level when I choose.

The biggest problem for me is I had a gap in play from the start of Cata to when I levelled, and the raids were already well progressed. By the time I thought about playing Pandoria I just looked at those 10 levels, and did not want to put the time because, again, the raids had progressed past a certain point. At least with this release I might have a chance to level, and progress along with the guild in order to raid again. Which is the only part of WoW that I really enjoy.

The problem with this, as others have pointed out, is that it incentivizes Blizzard to ensure that there are boring parts to increase the likelihood that people will want to pay to skip it. Sure, one could argue that Blizzard isn't motivated in that way, but can you prove it? The problem is that this kind of system in general is ripe for abuse, and that's a big part of why people don't like it.

EDIT: If the endgame is that much more fun that the rest of the game it also means they failed to properly balance the game, and why should I pay MORE for that?

WoWs model has pretty much always been: "we're going to add levels and end game content, screw 1-60 (1-70, etc)". This is not new. Cataclysm was the anomaly. They've added some new beginner zones for new races, but WoW has ALWAYS been about end game.

If you come to WoW looking for a vibrant 1-89 community, you're seriously barking up the wrong tree.

That's why most MMORPGs aren't for me, any more. I found out that I'm just not that kind of gamer.

And, that's just as OK as it is for gamers who are. To each their own.

As I said earlier, I just re-subbed (first time since Cata) and it's great. I usually burn out on end-game as well, but they've done a lot to make the game accessible with lots of stuff to do. Scenarios/heroics/LFR (to me) are all enjoyable with 1 or 2 friends. I've been going back to old content and solo-ing it cause I was never a raider. People look down on LFR, but whatever. I enjoy it. I can log on, queue, and finish a wing usually in under an hour (being a healer helps). I can finally see the content.

Sounds great...I wish that such systems had been in place when I finally left the game for good. I had an 85 Blood Death Knight (Muahaha, my most beloved character ever...and yes that was his name) and 85 Holy Paladin back in Cataclysm for a while, after I recovered my account from the RMT folks.

Captain Kruhnch (my Sawbones Scoundrel) isn't too bad either, but likely won't see much more play time, likely ever. This thread is tipping me more quickly towards just unsubscribing from MMORPGs, period, because just about everyone is giving voice to every reason that I've stopped playing MMORPGs for.

Ironically, I left WoW years ago because of the opposite problem - levelling automatically.

I played WoW primarily for the special areas and the sense of discovery - I remember doing the carrot quest and being constantly amazed as I moved through all of these new levels.

But invariably I would get more quests that I could complete while still being eligible due to the automatic levelling in other quests. I never finished gnomeregan because I inadvertently levelled while doing other quests and then was too high level.

Sure, you could get called into them, but then you were so outside the skill bucket that it was a cakewalk, and that ruined it just as surely.

This seems like a reflection of demographic reality. Gamers are getting older. For many of us, leveling a single character to 90 represents many thousands of dollars in foregone wages, and it requires devoting all of our limited gaming time to just one game for several months. Paying $60 to skip over that and go straight to the new content is a great deal, and it's probably the only way for Blizzard to keep that content accessible to busy players who would probably leave otherwise.

If Blizzard wants to placate everybody, why not simply use some sort of indicator on the interface to show which 90s are leveled with time as opposed to money.

Haven't read through all of the comments, so may have been mentioned. Why not a sliding scale? I have 3 toons in the 80s that I would love to have at 90, but can't bring myself to level them. Since I've already sunk so much time into them, $60 seems excessive.

Never been a big fan of Wow. Made an acc a couple months before the kung fu panda expansion came out (I forget what it's called)

I Don't get all the hype, questing boiled down to little more than "kill x amount of y to acquire a stack of z" or "go to x, collect y, deliver to z" Which was fun up until level 40 or so. So I had a look at instances, which boiled down to little more than "run through these same 5 dungeons hundreds of times until your high enough lvl to do the next batch"

Basically, add together the grinding/repetition, the AWFUL community (How dare I only be trying the game now, NOOB SCUM!) and the supposedly "rich" end game content (which to me, seemed like doing those same instances with more enemies/slightly better loot) and it feels to me more like facebook with avatars that level up..

But meh on the topic at hand - if people want to drop $60 to skip to the end game I don't see how it can cause such an outrage - The only people offended by this are the same who think that grinding a video game for hundreds of hours is somehow a noble deed and it will bring dishonour ot them and their families.... lawl

Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in Pittsburgh, PA.